The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-08-10
POPULAR SCIENCE.

Fly River, New Guinea, is one of the
most striking discoveries in herpetology
| of the last twenty years. Its limbs form
regular paddles, having claws on the two
inner digits only. 1t forms the type OF a
new family.
A singula. rodent from Somali-land IS
about the size of mouse, but is said
from its hairless skin, small eyes, and pc
culiar head, to look more like tiny
puppy. The ears are simple round holes,
| without conch. and the eyeballs are
| barely half millimeter in diameter. 1t
burrows in the earth.
Specimens of the pearls said to be
sometimes formed in the interior of CO.
coanuts have been obtained in North
Celebes by DR.. Sydney J. Hickson. He
describes them as being about half an
inch in diameter, worn smooth by fric-
ton, and consisting of pure carbonate of
lime, with no trace of vegetable matter.
Artificial clouds were recently made
! for the protection of vines from frost
at Pagny, on the Franco German frontier.
Liquid tar was ignited in tin boxes, with
pieces of solid tar on the ground near
the vines. Large clouds of smoke arose
and protected the vineyard for two hours.
Although vines in the neighborhood
were in jured by the frost, all that re-
mained under the clouds were left unin-
jured. Of course this contrivance can
succeed only in calm weather, but it is
only in calm weather that white frosts
occur.
Wood powder has recently been intro.
duced as an explosive in the Belgian
army in place of dynamite. The powder
is obtained by treating ordinary sawdust
with mixture of nitric and sulphur
acids, which is aftcrward formed into
cartridges by means of powerful presses.
To protect these cartridges from mos
ture, they are afterward covered with
paraffin"d paper The instantaneous
production of the gases arisingSupon the
explosion causes the air in contact with
the face surface of the cartridge to act tc
some extent as light tamping, and the
power of the explosion is directed to the
other face. In comparative experiments
made with. wood powder and dynamite il
Was ascertained that, for equal weights,
charges of the first substance were at
least as powerful as those of the second,
and the results were more regular.
At recent meeting of the English
Linnean Society paper was read ION
the sense of smell in dogs" in which
some experiments with setter dog were
detailed, which showed, for one thing,
that while very small part of the sur
face of boot is sufficient to make trail
which the animal can trace, the scent is
not able to penetrate single layer ot
brown paper. 1t was found, too, thai
the setter was ready at any moment tc
be guided by inference as we'll as percep-
tion. and that the act of inference was
instantaneous. The experiments also
showed that not only the feet but the
whole body of man exhale peculiar OF
individual odor, which dog can recog.
nize as that of his master amid crowd
of people, and that the individual quality
of this odor can be recognized at great
distances to windward, or in calm
weather in any direction.
In the animals endowed with the most
perfect respiratory organs the bodily heat
remains uniform through all changes of
temperature of the surrounding medium.
Respiration is more active in birds than
in any other class of animals, and their
temperature is uniformly higher than any
other, ranging from 106 to 112 degrees
Fahrenheit. In mammalia it is from 05 tc
1O5 degrees, varying for adult man. in diff
ferent individals, from 9S to 100 degrees.
During fevers it is several degrees higher,
reaching 1O6 or 1O7 degrees in scarlet OF
typhus fevers, while in other forms Of dis
ease it falls a little below the normal,
descending to 66 degrees in aremarkable
case not long ago reported. In health it
is about degree aud a half lower during
sleep than when awake, and it is some
degrees higher in the very young than in
the very old In the reptiles, fishes and
so-caled -blooded animals the tenn.
perature of the body is very little above
that of the surrounding air or water, ris.
ing or falling with the external changes.